Chagrin d'amour

I must first say I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the 1932 version of this film. Norma Shearer and Fredric March were perfect, the filming was perfect, the sets were perfect, the costumes were perfect, the story was perfect. It is a film I could watch over and over and never tire of! So why did I watch this remake? Well, I wanted to see for myself what it was like, even though I knew beforehand that noone could top Fredric and Norma.

I was correct. There was absolutely no reason to do this remake. It was wrong to be in color. The color was just distracting. Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond had no chemistry whatsover. All through the film I kept saying, " You're not saying it as though you MEAN it!" They just seemed to parrot the lines back and forth to each other. And these 2 were husband and wife in real life??? Fredric March and Norma Shearer had so much more sincerity in their performance in the 1932 version. You could FEEL their love, their joy, their desperation...those 2 really knew how to act. They WERE Ken and Kathleen. Jeanette and Gene were not. Gene Raymond didn't even know how to hand a lady a handkerchief in the right way!

Brian Aherne was totally non convincing as a man who was obsessed with the memory of his murdered beloved and his hatred of her murderer. You never FELT or BELIEVED that it meant much to him. Look at Leslie Howard's performance of John Carteret in the 1932 version. It was perfect. You could really see his borderline insanity from his obsession of wanting his Moonyean, and his hatred for her murderer, Jeremy Wayne.

The added songs in this version were only a distraction from the story. In the 1932 version, Norma did sing "Smilin Through", and it was appropriate for the scene. Here Jeanette sang too many songs and they didn't need to be there. I didn't care for her singing anyway.

This version had the classic scenes all wrong or even missing! Where Kathleen and Ken meet at the old Wayne house, well that was a beautiful scene with Fredric and Norma. The shadows were just right. Fredric comes into the room from the shadows. You see his beautiful, expressive eyes. The camera cuts to Norma. Her eyes tell you EXACTLY that this man is THE MAN who will have her heart. The picnic scenes in this version were nothing compared to Fredric and Norma having their teas at Mrs. Crouch's. Fredric and Norma had a lot more going on between them than eating! Why they cut out the homecoming scene at the train station, where Norma's Kathleen in the 32 version waits expectedly for Ken, but sees only Willie, and later we see her standing there alone, hoping to the very last moment that Ken will come, is beyond me. It was a beautiful scene. Norma was radiant in her white suit, ready for her beloved's return. In this one, Ken hears Kathleen singing in church. It just didn't have the impact of the train station scene. I could go on and on about scenes that were just all wrong!!

I am sure a Jeanette MacDonald fan will love this film. But if you want to see THE CLASSIC, THE BEST, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL version of this film, watch the 1932 one with Fredric March and Norma Shearer. You won't be disappointed.

This third film version of the play is earnest enough and MacDonald and Aherne play very well together. The Technicolor is rich and saturated, but suffers from having too many scenes filmed either indoors in dimly lit rooms or outside at night. The plot is not changed.

The problem is with Raymond. He has no chemistry with his real life wife (MacDonald) and is rather strange looking, almost smarmy. He neither interests nor excites as a love interest for Jeannette. She certainly throw herself into creating passion for his character, but he rather blandly just looks back and spouts his lines. I was wishing for Aherne's ultimatum for Jeannette to give up Raymond to be embraced fully.

Although MacDonald has songs, they are period pieces and the title tune, so it's not really a musical, just a play with music.

Still it's one of the great tearjerkers of all time (May Time, East Lynne, etc.) and should be seen, but seek out the 1932/33 version with Shearer and March. It is really the best. The 1922 silent starred Norma Talmadge, but only two prints survive and they are in archives. The straight talkie drama was deservedly nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and is the one preferred.

However, if you don't have access to it, at least watch this color version, so the beautiful and sentimental story of lost love can wash over you.

"Smilin' Through" was the only film that Jeanette MacDonald made with her husband, Gene Raymond. He looked so similar to her usual co-star Nelson Eddy that they were often mistaken for one another. Raymond did play leading roles in many 1930s films, but was not a musical star like Nelson Eddy. This film, a remake of a 1932 B/W starring Norma Shearer but this time featuring MacDonald's glorious singing, is an intriguing melodrama in the best sense of the word, and it probably would have been more famous if it did not debut on December 7, 1941. The US movie-going public had other things on their minds that day (and for nearly four years to come). A lush color musical with pacifist overtones was not among them.

Don't bother comparing this version of an old play with others. This one has Jeanette MacDonald and Brian Aherne and is splendid all on its own. A Word War II era look at the past it resonates with a thousand charming moments. She is lovely and even Gene Raymond charms. I think the special mood of this film may be that all of these faces are gone now and yet with us, part of those of us who watch and feel that vibration of the past lovers, the war in background and the sadness of our loss of that time and those faces, voices, memories. For me a pleasure enhanced with every viewing. A special thank your to Mr. Aherne who will always be a favorite of mine and hopefully others who have watched that expressive and quite beautiful but very masculine face. Definitely recommended.

1932's "Smilin' Through" was one of the best films of its day....delightful and exquisitely produced. However, Hollywood of the 30s and 40s loved to remake films...and so it was inevitable that they'd remake the movie and I just finished watching the 1941 version. Sadly, the remake is in no way superior...and in a few ways it's not up to the original. Of course it's very watchable...the basic story is marvelous. But my recommendation is that you stick with the earlier version.

Instead of discussing the plot as I normally would do, I'll skip it since the film is pretty much identical to the first version. The biggest thing I didn't like about this second version is that because it starred Jeanette MacDonald, MGM insisted it had to be jam-packed with her singing...singing that was unnecessary and tended to drag the film down in the process. It became more of a musical than a romance as a result. Additionally, it makes the same mistake the original did...it used the cliche of having folks playing multiple roles. You are to expect that a man's son is identical to the father in every way...silly of course. But you ALSO are expected to accept that a niece looks completely identical to her aunt...which is way beyond silly.

So my thoughts are that you watch this 1941 version if you must, though you'd be much better off seeing the original and being done with it!

By the way, if you care, the lovers in the film were played by Jeanette MacDonald and Gene Raymond--who were married in real life.